Confused about lighting

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macfisto

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jul 13, 2005
Messages
47
Location
Louisville, KY
Hello,

I've been doing quite a bit of reading in this forum the past couple of days about lighting. I currently have two 15-watt GE plant & aquarium bulbs over my 55g, and after about 8 months I believe, due to some yellowing of my plants that has occurred over the past couple weeks or so, that they are starting to go south. I believe my plants (crypts, anubias, jungle val, dwarf sag, swords) have done pretty well in my low-light situation up to this point, but I am certainly not against trying to find ways for them to do better. I have starting dosing excel over the past week in an attempt to get rid of and control some black beard algae that has developed. After reading through the forums, the consesus seems to be that a NO bulb with a color temp of between 5000-10,000K is best, along with as high of a CRI as possible. I just went to HD and purchased two Philips "Natural Sunshine" bulbs, that have a 5000K and 92 CRI. From what I have read, this should be pretty good. While there, I noticed that Philips' "Plant & Aquarium" bulb has only 2700K and there was no CRI listed. What's the deal with this? From what I've read, 2700K wouldn't be very good at all for growing plants. The GE bulbs that I have on my tank now did not have any K value listed on the box, but I would assume that it's probably about the same as the Philips bulb. So which bulb should I use?? Is it that GE and Philips don't really know what's best for growing plants?? Any response would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
You can grow plants under just about any "K" rating. (Although 2700K is really low). The K measure the color given off of the bulb as it appears to the human eye (not exact but its a close non technical definition). I would use the 5000K bulb (I perfer higher but 5000K works well). The GE bulb is probably 9325K. Thats a common selling point for GE plant bulbs. I love them myself while others think they look too pink for them. Its a matter of preference of the human, not the plants. I would recommend adding some more light over the tank though. Even a 4' shop light and new bulb (Less than $25.00 for both) would be a great benefit. In short the best spectrum for growing plants is any less than 12000K and over 2000K.
 
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